1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for generating an atmospheric quasi-sound for music performance, and particularly to an atmospheric quasi-sound generating system for music performance included playback in which an atmospheric sound for music performance is artificially generated, and quasi-sound thus generated is added to reproduced sound of pieces of music.
2. Description of Related Art
Most of audio devices have been hitherto designed to reproduce only the sound of pieces of music (hereinafter referred to as "musical sound") which have been already recorded, and in order to break such a circumstance, some special audio devices have been developed to have a function of making sound effects such as the song of a bird, the murmur of a brook or the like to generate a favorite atmospheric sound and superposing the sound on the reproduced sound of a piece of music.
One of such audio devices is disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. Hei-4-278799. The audio device as disclosed in the above publication as shown FIG. 3 has been implemented to obtain the more satisfactory presence by outputting not only a sound field by a musical performance sound, but also an atmospheric sound simulating a musical performance sound in a concert hall, and it is equipped with a sound field controller for generating an initial reflection sound signal 15 and a reverberation sound signal 16 by an acoustic signal and outputting them from the corresponding loudspeaker system 14. This controller is provided with an atmospheric sound source 11 for storing atmospheric sound signals corresponding to a direct sound 31, an initial reflection sound 32 and an atmospheric signal 33 simulating a reverberation in a concert hall, by a format corresponding to the direct sound 31, the initial reflection sound 32 and the reverberation sound 33 or a format corresponding to the loudspeaker system 14, and a mixing means for mixing the direct sound signal, the initial reflection sound signal and the reverberation sound signal and the atmospheric sound signal. With this construction, not only a sound field by a musical performance sound, but also an atmospheric sound in a concert hall can be produced, so that a sound field with concert-hall presence can be reproduced.
In the conventional audio devices as described above, however, the atmospheric sounds which are reproduced in addition to the sound of pieces of music are those sounds which have been already recorded, and thus the devices have the following problem occurs. That is, if these atmospheric sounds are recorded in a studio, the presence of these sounds is insufficient when reproduced. Furthermore, if these sounds are recorded under actual conditions, reproduction of these sounds is restricted under specific atmospheres for music performance.
The audio device as disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 4-278799 enables an user to feel as if he was in a concert hall, however, it has the following problem. That is, the atmospheric sound signals contain no information on the position of a sound field, and thus there is a possibility that the atmospheric sound source is overlapped with the sound of a piece of music in acoustic image position. In this case, the atmospheric sound disturbs user's listening to the piece of music, and thus the user cannot listen to the piece of music comfortably. Likewise, in the audio device which generates sound effects such as a bird's song, the murmur of a brook or the like and superimposes the sound effects on the sound of a piece of music (musical sound) as described above, the sound effect is overlapped with the musical sound, and the user's listening to the musical sound is also disturbed.